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User blog:Jpprales/Tips to Surviving as a Tokyo Private School Jet (2018)
'A Whole New World, A Whole New You' Tips to Surviving as a Tokyo Private School Jet 'Greetings From Tokyo's Ota Ward!' As my first year working abroad comes to a close, the need to reflect and contribute towards the greater good of future likeminded JETs has arisen. Assuming that you (the reader) is in a similar position I was, it is my intentions to leave you some sort of constructive blueprint for mapping out your first set of “To-do’s” as you venture forth on your new adventures as an Assistant Language Teacher. I still remember those first few moments of shock, pride, and disbelief when I, of all people, was selected for Tokyo. That delight slowly turned to dread as I began rationalizing the requirements for living in a place like Tokyo, Japan. The tedious requirements for living and creating an established career in Tokyo can be overwhelming and I am sure by the time you read this the motto, “Every situation is different.” will be something you wish could be replaced with advice geared towards to your very relevant and imminent future'. ' While I am not able to give you advice directly tied to your individual destinations, the steps I took (and didn’t take at first) towards developing a balance between lifestyle, work, finances, and social life can be used and modified upon by any JET, regardless of their placement. As a final bit of a disclaimer, there are easier ways to approach your future in JET, but my intention was to develop and implement a “progressive” and "Antifragile" (gets better under stress) situation that fits both personal needs, and the needs of our position in JET. That is right, no slacking here! Now let’s get to it. 'The Topics I Will Cover' My first suggestion for organizing your “To-do’s” is to categorize them into very broad ideas, then break each down into subsets, The broad topics that I will be covering include: ' 1. Lifestyle' ' 2. Work' ' 3. Finances' ' 4. Social' The order of these categories, in my experience, reflects how quickly each become relevant, after touching down in Tokyo. Now that our larger sets are established, everything we build upon will be a subset of these four topics concerning your new life in Japan. While you can really arrange these in any order, I arranged them so that each expands on and has relevance to the next. Considering the extensive amount of explanation each topic will require, I have decided to cover each of these topics separately over the span of the next four weeks. ''' '''Organizing and developing your life in Tokyo will require that you find ways to build a greater understanding of your surroundings and utilizing everything within your local setting. There are no cheat codes to a successful life and I am not here to give you an “easy mode” explanation (with a couple exceptions of course). Tokyo life can be very rewarding, but keep in mind there are many ways to find yourself in difficult situations (especially in regards to the four of the topics we will be covering). It is my aspirations to leave you with a starting point for personal growth as you move forward with your new careers. Congratulations on your future with JET! I am looking forward to sharing more tips with you in the following weeks to come. 'About Me (Nice to meet you!)' Hello everyone, my name is John Peter Perales II (JP for short) I am from Memphis, Tennessee (USA) and I started my career with JET last year (Fall 2017) I left the states around July. My placement was in Ota-Ku, Tokyo and I currently live in a small city called Ontakesan (Located between Gotanda and Kamata on the Ikegami-Sen train line). I was the first JET (and American representative) at my school and for many of my fellow staff and students, the first American they had ever spoken too. As an undergrad, I studied at the University of Memphis and graduated with a double major in Japanese and Philosophy. This year, I finished my graduate degree in Information Technology Management through Webster University (Online), and I started my second masters (Teaching English as a Second Language) with Webster in June. I have a huge list of hobbies and interest which range from: Basketball (school club), Judo (school club), strength training (member at Any Time Fitness ), cooking, self-improvement strategy, music (I love going to concerts and I play guitar), guest speaking, video games (I have my own Twitch and YouTube pages), Anime/Manga (naturally), sightseeing, and hopefully more blogging soon! Category:Blog posts Category:JET Blogs